


Another Chance?

by thewolves



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: (Robert was the one Joseph was 'in love' with when he was young and wild), Angst, First Love, Fix-It of Sorts, Love, M/M, Mentions of Sex, Previous Relationship, Regret, previous roseph
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 07:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11641698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewolves/pseuds/thewolves
Summary: After an unsuccessful date with Dadsona,  Joseph is left to tend to his wounds (figurative and literal) alone on his yacht. Robert comes to gloat. Or maybe for some other reason?





	Another Chance?

Joseph's head was killing him. That was the first thought that came to his mind as he opened his eyes to a glaring light. The second was his date. Where was his date? Then it all came back to him.

  
He had just notified his date that they'd ran out of gas. The ruse he'd been planning for a week went smoothly, at least that was what he thought at the time. His date agreed they should relax with some wine and went to get it. Maybe the way he'd said it, "Wine." Very little excitement in his voice, even though he was smiling widely. Maybe the smile had been a little too wide?

When his date returned with the strategically placed bottle of Twilight Rouge and two glasses, Joseph was further convinced that the night would be one to remember.

"You think I don't know?" his date said approaching, the smile on his face becoming a little more sinister by second.

Joseph tried to play along. He had experience with difficult costumers. Well only one. But he was worth at least seven difficult costumers. "You got me," he said, smiling sweetly, "I did conspire with the whales, they're waiting just under the yacht to swallow you." He made a few steps toward the man, who was seemingly softening. "You shouldn't have posted that screed against them on your blog. They can read you know?" Joseph, secure in his flirting skill, ran a finger over the man's arm.

The man chuckled softly. Score one for the pastor dad. He still had it. If only Robert could see his skill on display now.

"You think I don't know," the man repeated. "About the implication?"

"A what?" Joseph said, his patented easygoing smile still there.

"The implication, you dissembling strumpet whoreson of a bastard!" The man was yelling now, Joseph could do nothing but stare in wonder. At the sudden outburst _and_ his choice of insults. "I have all the seasons of It's Always Sunny on DVDs," the man spat out, "I made sure to warn my daughter of guys like you! The lying treacherous rogues like you!"

Before Joseph could say anything to counter the barrage of the very dated insults, the man menacingly lifted up the Twilight Rouge and then suddenly everything went black.

  
Joseph touched a finger to his head, there was a bandage there. So the guy hadn't left him for dead at the very least. Maybe he'd still... he squashed that thought as soon as it formed. Never again. Not even a need for... well, a hot, fat cock in his ass, was worth of all this.

He looked around, listened, the boat was not moving, and it was morning already. Out of one of the windows he spied some other boats and the telling fence. So he was... In the marina again. His date must have steered the boat once he realized there was no gas shortage. Or he realized that immediately. And he had thought he picked a guy who had no clue about boats.

After some more lying about and staring at the cabin ceiling and thinking about life, he decided to get up, get dressed and... call his doctor? He had no idea. This was supposed to be a day of relaxation and giving and receiving. Now he was alone in his yacht-home, one neighbourly relationship ruined forever.

He put some eggs in a cup of water, put that into microwave. There would be at least some sinning today, he figured.

As he was preparing to eat the unholy meal, he heard a knock on the... some part of the boat. Joseph hoped it wasn't Mary, seeing her now could make him do something really stupid, like ask for another chance.

"Nice. I see you're still a big fan of fancy cuisine," a gruff voice said. The voice was joined by the familiar leather jacket and even more familiar scowl. Robert.

"Come to gloat?" Joseph muttered, looking at the eggs, preparing for that first disgusting bite.

"You know me, always up for a good joke. And as it stands I'm looking at the funniest one yet."

 _Don't let him get to you_ , Joseph thought. He bravely forked a bit of egg and brought it to his mouth. It was not bad, not good... needed some...

"Need this?"

Robert, who was now just in front of him was holding out a salt shaker.

Joseph, making sure not to look at or touch Robert's nice hands took it and said "Thanks." He salted his eggs.

Robert sat on the chair beside his. Put his hands just within Joseph's eyesight. Not grasp though. Joseph was painfully sure of that.

They sat in silence, Joseph eating his eggs slowly, thinking not about Robert, how good he looked and smelled, Robert looking somewhere in the distance, or somewhere within himself. Robert was always brave that way. And he used to make Joseph feel he could be brave too.

"I talked to Val," Robert said when Joseph finished eating. There was no inflection in his voice.

"That's... great," Joseph said. "I'm... honestly happy for you."

After a moment of waiting for Robert to say something else, he got up to take the plate and other dirty dishes scattered on the table to the sink.

"I talked to Mary too," he heard Robert say when he was at the sink, pretending to wash the dishes.

"She told me about the divorce. Said she'll leave you the yacht but that was it."

Joseph allowed himself a small, silent sigh. "It's all I need."

Joseph thought Robert would get up and leave now that he had his fun, got to gloat and see him at his lowest.

"Talking to Val made me think about other things in my life," Robert said softly. "Things I... messed up."

"Robert..." Joseph said, bracing his hands on the sink and hanging his head.

"Back when we first... When you told me you were in love and I..."

"Laughed? Told me I was pathetic? Or when you told me to get lost and 'Suck it up kiddo, it's only your first heartbreak'?"

"I never thought how my words affected other people before. People I... cared about. In my own way."

"Well that's ancient history now. I did what you told me to do, I sucked it up. Got married soon after, had the kids..."

"Became a man of God..."

"I've always been one, Robert."

Robert said nothing. Joseph continued on his cleanly way and started scrubbing the counters.

"When we..." Robert said reluctantly, "you know, again?"

"Fucked?" Joseph spat out. "When I brought you here and had you against every surface?"

"Yeah, that." Robert was rubbing his face as if ashamed. As if. "I... got back to my apartment and... for the next two weeks I sat in the darkness with whiskey and my Criterion collection of Italian Neorealism as my only company."

Joseph turned to look at him. "I ladri?"

Robert shook his head. "Umberto."

Fuck, Joseph thought.

"I drank myself into stupor, and thought about you. That day we... chased that bear cub. How you grabbed my hand when we thought his mother was coming to get us. How you held on so tightly... And when we got back to our place..."

"We made love on that bed you brought that week, from god knows where," Joseph finished the thought, sitting back beside Robert.

"Yeah... I told you one of the 'wise guys down the road' gave it to me because he had used it to stash money underneath the mattress, and the feds' dogs were too good so he had to get rid of it."

"You were always full of stories," Joseph said, an involuntary smile forming on his lips.

Robert just looked at his hands. "I'd bought it for us. I wanted to be with you back then."

Joseph felt a familiar tightness in his chest, he always did when he remembered those days. Which is why he went out of his way not to.

"I was happy," Joseph said sighing heavily. "With my wife, my kids, the pastorate, my house... Until you moved to our street. And I thought if I could just get it out of my system, have you one more time, to convince myself I felt nothing... And we did... but it only made the small hole in me larger, willing to be filled any way possible."

Joseph sighed, unsure why he was telling Robert this, then continued: "So when our new neighbour, you know him...?" - Robert made a small nod. "When he signalled interest, I decided to convince myself it was cock I wanted, not a specific cock. That I just wanted a man. Not you."

Robert said nothing, but Joseph could see his jaw clench when he mentioned their new neighbour.

"By that time my marriage was over, and every time I saw you I could... feel your hands on me, the way you made me lick your fingers before you... how you arched your back when I had you against the counter. Just like back then. I wanted to be as happy as I was years ago, I wanted to stop thinking you were the deciding factor." He put his head into his hands. His heart was aching like... just like...

"I couldn't stop thinking about you either, after we..." Robert said, his gravelly voice thick with emotion. "I had years on my own, all the freedom a man could desire, but after we... after I had you again, all I could think was how same it felt. How even after all that time, being with you felt like giving everything to someone, even some things I wasn't sure I wanted to give. How good that existential fear felt. Only with you, Joe."

"Do you..." Joseph said, his eyes cast downwards, "think you ever felt something? For me?"

Robert, still looking at his fingers, chuckled in a sort of choked up way. "Yeah," he said in an unsteady voice, the smile reaching his eyes.

Joseph had forgotten just how impactful a genuinely smiling Robert was.

"Did you," Robert said looking at him from under his thick lashes, "mean what you said about me being a factor?"

Joseph took a deep breath that somehow hurt his lungs, "I think I said 'the deciding factor'," he said in a faint voice. He took another deep breath. "Robert, I'm... not sure that we..."

"Deserve another go?" Robert smiled sadly.

"I don't think I would know where to start," Joseph said. It was true, this was too much and maybe he was too old to get lost again. Maybe this time there would be no way back.

"Maybe..." Robert started in a soft voice, "it's not a question of where. Maybe it's a question of how?"

Joseph chuckled. Always a sales pitch... But maybe... "Alright, how?"

Robert took a deep breath. "Let's say I help you clean this place up so it's livable? I leave you to your commitments and go feed Betsy. Later, say six p.m., I bring some food - nothing fancy, and a movie, maybe some French New Wave, so that even if there's tension and it's weird, there's something even weirder happening in front of us. We enjoy the movie sitting at a reasonable distance, our hands touch maybe once or twice and that's it. When the movie is over, I help you clean up, you say 'It's late...' I'm gone. I can't promise not to try and kiss your hand good night, you'll just have to be smart about it."

"You could've just said 'slow'," Joseph said, his heart was beating like a loud thing, a t-rex heart maybe?

"Ok then," Robert said, looking at him softly. "Slow?"

"I'll have to think about it," Joseph said.

Robert did the thing where he pretended everything is ok, fake smile, everything in place. "I think best with some bad food in me and watching weird movies about existential angst," Joseph added, raising an eyebrow. "And I hate lateness."

Robert gave him the biggest smile yet, got up, looked around. "I'll take the back side of the room, there could be cryptids under that mess."

"Fine, I'll take the front, with all the boring mess."

"We'll meet in the middle," Robert said over his shoulder.

Joseph sure hoped so. "If the cryptids don't get you first. Hope they let me keep that jacket of yours."

Robert laughed. It was a laugh of promise. Promise to possess the jacket and haunt him? Joseph would have to find out on his own.

**Author's Note:**

> Robert/Joseph, am I right?


End file.
